Thor Halvorssen, the president of the Human Rights Foundation, appeared on Fox News’ Intelligence Report with Trish Regan and discussed how presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is attempting to violate our basic human rights with his socialist campaign. Halvorssen’s father was a political prisoner in Venezuela, his mother was shot to death while Venezuela was under the Hugo Chavez regime, and his first cousin is currently in prison in Venezuela so Halvorssen has experienced Socialism first hand and has hands on experience with this type of government.

He understands that Sanders wants a redistribution of wealth but Thor Halvorssen states that this is not the way to end poverty in the United States. He states there are countries that do not violate basic human rights that do have socialist governments and that it is all possible as long as there are boundaries set in place. There needs to be separation of powers and certain branches of government, if not then you could possibly end up with a socialist government under authoritarian rule. These types of governments use socialism as a “mask”, Halvorssen says, to take control of the country’s finances. They claim that they are going to redistribute the wealth, set firm prices for products, when in reality they keep the money for themselves.

Trish Regan asks Halvorssen to explain Socialism because she believes that many Sanders followers do not understand what a Socialist government could do and Halvorssen explains that it all depends on the context because there are many countries that have a democratic government but enforce socialist policies. These countries would be found in Northern Europe such as Denmark or Sweden. Halvorssen also explains that having socialist policies are extremely different from having socialist governments and that many people believe Socialism, Communism, and Marxism to be the same thing.
Halvorssen’s main objection to socialist governments is that they give those in power the opportunity to essentially loot the country of its wealth and his example of Venezuela shows that when you allow that to go on for so long you eventually end up with a humanitarian crisis. However, he also goes onto say that he would prefer Bernie Sanders to be the Democrat nominee because Hillary Clinton has taken campaign donations from dictators and he sees that as terrible for our country. Find Thor on Facebook for more updates and information.